Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: comparison of patients accepting and rejecting myopia surgery

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered to 36 consecutive patients presenting to one surgeon as candidates for myopia surgery. Twenty-one patients proceeded to surgery, and 15 did not. The patients in this series were mature, nonaggressive persons whose basic and clinical MMPI scale values were generally within normal limits. No significant differences were found between the group that underwent surgery and the group that did not. In the group that underwent surgery, no personality characteristics were found to be associated with either a good or a poor surgical result. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of the MMPI to objectively evaluate personality characteristics of candidates for myopia surgery.